


Final Impact

by Shujinkakusama



Series: Bad End Running [1]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Bad Ending, Character Death, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-26
Updated: 2016-04-26
Packaged: 2018-06-04 17:37:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6668041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shujinkakusama/pseuds/Shujinkakusama
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For the prompt "Please don't do this!" on Tumblr. Homeworld sets out to obliterate the Crystal Gems, and Earth, once and for all. Oneshot. Angst.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Final Impact

They were horribly outnumbered and outclassed.

 

It was bound to happen; Homeworld had sent enough ships, an entire army, to obliterate the Crystal Gems after the Cluster had been defeated. They had captured a few, only to find that they were unmanned. Garnet defeated several with the help of Lapis and—surprisingly—Malachite, but their allies could only fight for so long. Malachite had been defeated; Jasper’s Gem blasted to shrapnel at close range by one of the drones they were up against.

 

Lapis had lost her fight after that. Garnet didn’t blame her, but neither did she mourn much when the blue Gem was captured. She knew her fate, and there was no time.

 

It was the war all over again, only this time, they had no Rose Quartz to produce a miracle.

 

Amethyst fell next, protecting Steven. Pearl gathered the boy up in shaking arms and fled with him. There was no Gem to collect. Homeworld was bound and determined to really wipe them out this time, and now, they had the weapons to do it with ease.

 

Peridot was nowhere to be found, and Pearl didn’t want to know her fate. She had been the primary target, after all. The focus of Yellow Diamond’s insurmountable wrath. The reason there was no Cluster.

 

The Temple was taken; Beach City blown to bits. Garnet fled to Mask Island with Pearl and Steven, then to the Galaxy Warp.

 

They’d repaired one warp with Peridot’s remaining robonoids, after getting them up and running again. It was a failsafe; led to an abandoned colony that still had an atmosphere that could support life. Homeworld had moved on from that quadrant.

 

Some time in, Steven had cried himself to sleep, exhausted from maintaining more shields than he could count, and Pearl held him like her life depended on it. She was battered and bruised, exhausted, and unprepared for the weight of what was happening to hit, but she knew it was only a matter of time. The lull while Homeworld looked for them wouldn’t last.

 

Garnet smashed the warp pad they’d arrived on, and Pearl flinched in memory of their fallen allies and friends.

 

“We have to go,” Pearl whispered breathlessly, tugging Garnet’s arm. Her gauntlets vanished, and wide blue eyes stared up at her stony expression, hidden by a cracked visor that surely only stayed up by magic. Garnet didn’t move, and Pearl reached for her hand, lax at her side, twining fingers. Sapphire’s Gem was cool in her palm. “Garnet, we have to. They’ll find us here, even without the warps. We don’t stand a—“

 

She faltered, panic settling in as her partner stared dully at her.

 

Garnet wasn’t planning to go with them.

 

“No!” Pearl gasped, “Garnet, come with me. With us. I can’t protect Steven alone.”

 

“I’ve got to destroy the warp pad so they can’t follow you,” Garnet said softly, drawing Pearl’s bruised knuckles up to kiss the back of her hand. “It’s your best chance.”

 

“Please don’t do this,” Pearl tried, feeling tears welling up in her eyes. “Garnet, I need you, I can’t—“

 

“Take the warp pad, Pearl,” Garnet whispered, “Get as far away as you possibly can.”

 

“Not without you,” Pearl clutched her hand, shaking almost violently. “ _I’ll_ stay. I’ll fight _with_ you. Garnet, you have to… Please, I can’t…”

 

The Fusion leaned in, cutting her off with a kiss that spoke volumes, and Pearl tried hard to return it despite her tears. She couldn’t live without Garnet. Couldn’t imagine life off world. She didn’t have the strength alone to protect Steven, and they both knew it—both knew it was a matter of time before running was pointless. Pearl broke the kiss with a shuddering sob, crumpling against Garnet’s chest. They both knew there wasn’t time. Garnet brought her arms up to embrace Pearl and Steven, her two dearest loves, scanning possible futures. Their chances dwindled the longer they stayed. She steered them toward the warp pad, and Pearl went, legs moving automatically, a breathless mantra of, _I love you, Garnet, please come with us_ , escaping her chapped lips against the Fusion’s breastplate. Garnet shushed her, ignored the tears that streamed down her own face unbidden, and tried to focus on the futures where they survived, even if she didn’t.

 

“I love you too,” Garnet whispered into Pearl’s hair, earning a shuddering sob. She leaned down to press a kiss to Steven’s curls, then smoothed Pearl’s hair away from her Gem.

 

The vision she passed to Pearl wasn’t a happy one, but was the only one where she survived. Separated and taken to Homeworld to be made an example of, Ruby and Sapphire at least had a chance to continue existing. Separate but whole, trapped and left to rot in prison cells by the Magistrate’s will.

 

“I know you’ll find us,” Garnet whispered earnestly, “You have to be strong until then. Say you will.”

 

Pearl looked up at her sharply, at a loss, and she traced Garnet’s damp cheek with shaking fingers. “I will,” Pearl echoed hollowly, and Garnet leaned down for one last kiss.

 

Then stepped off the warp pad as she activated it.

 

“ _Garnet_!” Pearl cried out, but the stream was already carrying her away, with Steven out cold against her shoulder, and the last she saw of the Fusion was her summoning her gauntlets, ready to face Homeworld’s final wave alone.


End file.
